The Citizens Against Government Waste released its annual Pig Book today, a list of "pork projects" inserted by individual lawmakers that the group finds "wasteful."Missouri ranks right in the middle, regarding the amount of "wasteful projects" it receives, according to CAGW. The Show-Me State received $244,170,488 in 2008, enough to earn it a ranking of the 24th "worst porker" nationwide.
These are projects that are slipped into the budget by lawmakers for a specific purpose, but don't always go through the proper Congressional procedure. The official porker criteria can be read HERE.
We can debate the criteria CAGW uses to identify "waste" or "pork," but here are some of the Springfield items dubbed wasteful in the lastest budget: (It also lists the cost and the politician responsible.)
*City of Springfield, Ready to Learn Program . . . $585,000 . . . Rep. Blunt/Sen. Bond
*Crisis Nursery of the Ozarks Child Abuse Program . . . $239,000 . . . Rep. Blunt/Sen. Bond
*Missouri State University, college prep pilot program . . . $97,000 . . . Rep. Blunt
*Springfield-Branson Airport, Terminal Construction . . . $980,000 . . . Rep. Blunt
*Route 266 & I-44 Interchange and Maintenance . . . $490,000 . . . Rep. Blunt
Wasteful or necessary?
CAGW defends its rankings this way: These are local projects that should be funded by local, county or state entities . . . not the federal government.
Search the Pig Book yourself HERE. and then decide if you're a porker yourself . . .
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